ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Ministry of Science & Technology
Career researchers receive awards for exploring networking opportunities for S&T collaborations between India & Germany
A total of 11 career researchers from India and Germany have received the ‘Paired Early Career Fellowship in Applied Research ’ which will facilitate their short-duration visit to explore opportunities for connecting and networking for research collaborations between India and Germany in frontier areas of science and technology.
This is the first time researchers have received this award under the PECFAR, which was launched recently to facilitate a two-way exchange between early-career researchers from India and German. It is envisaged that such engagements through networking would further establish long-term bilateral collaborations and provide an opportunity to explore the Indian and German research landscape for potential collaborations.
The initiative has been launched by the Indo-German Science & Technology Centre , a bilateral institution established by the Department of Science and Technology , the Government of India, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research , Government of Germany to promote Science and Technology collaborations with a focus on applied research.
IGSTC organised a virtual Award Felicitation Ceremony on 15th November 2022. Shri. S.K. Varshney, Adviser & Head, International Cooperation, Department of Science and Technology , Govt. of India & Indian Co-Chair and Ms. Kathrin Meyer, Head of the Division Cooperation with Asia and Oceania, Federal Ministry of Education and Research , Govt. of Germany & German Co-Chair addressed the awardees and inspired them to take the opportunity to visit India and Germany for exploring various S&T aspects including infrastructure/lab facilities, work culture, entrepreneurship avenues, and inter-institutional networking. Each pair of Indian and German Awardees pitched their views on the programme and expressed how such opportunities will create a foundation for their future research endeavours.
The details of the awardees of the PECFAR-2022 are as below:
|
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No.
|
|
Name & Affiliation of the paired fellows
|
|
India
|
|
Germany
|
|
1
|
|
Tarun Rambha, IISc Bangalore
|
|
Maximilian Schiffer, TU Munich
|
|
2
|
|
Surabhi Jain, IIT-ISM Dhanbad
|
|
Ana Paula Ribera, TU Munich
|
|
3
|
|
Pankaj Khanna, IIT Gandhinagar
|
|
Samuel Thomas Thiele, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology
|
|
4
|
|
Ankit Jain, IIT Bombay
|
|
Abhishek Khetan, RWTH Aachen
|
|
5
|
|
Sai Gautam Gopalakrishnan, IISc Bangalore
|
|
Hans-Georg Steinrück, Paderborn University
|
|
6
|
|
Uma Shanker, Central University of Punjab
|
|
Amit Khurana, RWTH University Hospital
|
|
7
|
|
Saikat Kumar Shome, CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur
|
|
Amartya Ganguly, TU Munich
|
|
8
|
|
Tanmoy Chakraborty, IIT Delhi
|
|
Debarghya Ghoshdastidar, TU Munich
|
|
9
|
|
Prateek Saxena, IIT Mandi
|
|
Christian Lahoda, TU Berlin
|
|
10
|
|
Bukke Kiran Naik, NIT Rourkela
|
|
Sumit Agarwal, PTB, Braunschweig
|
|
11
|
|
Khalid Muzamil Gani, NIT Srinagar
|
|
Tavseef Mairaj Shah, Hamburg University of Technology
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
India’s Cumulative COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage exceeds 97.79 Cr
Recovery Rate currently at 98.12%; Highest since March 2020
13,596 New Cases reported in the last 24 hours
India's Active Caseload  is lowest in 221 days
Weekly Positivity Rate  less than 3% for last 115 days
With the administration of 12,05,162vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 97.79 Cr  as per provisional reports till 7 am today. This has been achieved through 96,88,300 sessions.
The break-up of the cumulative figureas per the provisional report till 7 am today include:
|
|
HCWs
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
1,03,75,864
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
90,77,901
|
|
FLWs
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
1,83,61,949
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
1,55,20,467
|
|
Age Group 18-44 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
39,31,57,500
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
11,07,36,109
|
|
Age Group 45-59 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
16,77,59,306
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
8,60,28,053
|
|
Over 60 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
10,57,36,587
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
6,11,94,047
|
|
Total
|
|
97,79,47,783
The recovery of19,582 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients  to 3,34,39,331.
Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.12%. Recovery Rate is currently at its highest peak since March 2020.
Sustained and collaborative efforts by the Centre and the States/UTs continue the trend of less than 50,000 Daily New Cases that is being reported for 113 consecutive days now.
13,596 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Daily New cases reported to be lowest in230 days now.
The Active Caseload has fallen below 2 lakh mark and is presently at1,89,694, which islowest in 221days.Active cases presently constitute 0.56% of the country's total Positive Cases.
The testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded. The last 24 hours saw a total of
9,89,493tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over59.19 Cr  cumulative tests.
While testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, Weekly Positivity Rate at 1.37% remains less than 3% for the last 115 days now. The Daily Positivity rate reported to be1.37%. The daily Positivity rate has remained below3% for last 49 days and below 5% for 132 consecutive days now.
Ministry of Defence
Indian Navy Organises Medical Camp at Niuland, Nagaland
Indian Navy today organised a multi-specialty medical and wellness camp at the remotely located district Niuland at Nagaland, 35 Km from Dimapur. This was as part of a series of activities planned as an outreach from the IN to the North-Eastern States and building awareness about the Indian Navy. The camp was inaugurated by Surg Rear Admiral Ravinderajeet Singh, Additional Director General Medical Services  and Mrs Sara S Jamir, District Commissioner of Niuland. The multi-specialty camp included consultation by Medical Specialist, Gynaecologist, ENT Specialist, Ophthalmologist, Radiologist and Dental Specialist, deputed from various Commands of the Indian Navy. The medicines prescribed by the Specialists are being distributed free of cost to the patients.
The services offered during the camp besides specialist consultation and free medicines were Complete Body Analyzer, Bone Mineral Densitometry, Ultrasonography, Lab investigations and Anthropometry. Health education, training on Cancer prevention and CPR were carried out for the civilian population attending the Camp. The Medical Camp by Indian Navy has been planned for two days 29 and 30 Nov 2022. Day one saw an over-whelming response with more than 250 people of Niuland and nearby villages availing the facilities at the Camp.
Ministry of Science & Technology
Easy collection and processing of pongamia through motorised de-husking & oil extraction machines brings confidence to boost bio-fuel production
The participation of the farming community in feed stock production plays an important role in developing strategies for biofuel production thus will help fulfill the target of 175 GW of non-fossil fuel of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
As the manual dehusking of Pongamia , a potential biofuel crop, is a laborious process, farmers do not show much interest for its collection. Hence motorized dehusking machine was much desired to bring back their enthusiasm for collection and processing.
The Pongamia decorticator, which runs on 1.0 HP single-phase electric motor, has been designed and developed using mild steel with a capacity of 80-100kg/hr with Grant-in-aid from SYST program, SEED Division of the Department of Science and Technology  at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore under the project entitled “Development and evaluation of pongamia pod decorticator and mini vegetable seed oil extraction machine”. The machine has efficiency of about 85-90% and damage of the seeds to the tune of 10%. Usually, the damaged seeds are broken into cotyledons which may not have any effect on oil extraction process.
Newly developed oil extraction machines and pongamia pod decorticators will help improve biofuel production and by-product utilisation at the village level to augment the income of farmers in Hassan district, Karnataka.
A total of 10 mini vegetable oil extraction machines and 8 pongamia pod decorticators have been distributed recently to farmers’ self-help groups at Hassan district, Karnataka, which are linked to farmers’ producer organizations.
These small-scale oil extraction machines would be ideal for rural areas for oil extraction in villages and use of by-products like the cake for manure, biogas, and also edible oil cake as animal feed. These machines were developed and tested for edible and non-edible oilseeds. It runs on single phase 230 V power with variable speed. Heating mechanism with temperature control has been developed for heating of the expeller at the cake flow to enhance the extraction efficiency. Power consumption for oil extraction is 500 w/h. The oil extractor is removable and can be easily cleaned before using for different oil seeds. Different sets of extractors may be used for edible and non-edible oils. The machine has been tested for edible oil seeds such as Sunflower, Coconut, Groundnut, mustered, sesame, etc., and non-edible oil seeds such as pongamia, neem, and mahua.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
COVID - 19 Vaccination Update - Day 362
India’s cumulative vaccination coverage crosses 154.50 crore
More than 66 lakh Vaccine doses administered today till 7 pm
India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 154.50 Crore  today. More than 66 lakh  Vaccine Doses have been administered till 7 pm today. More than 26 lakh  Precaution Doses for the identified categories of beneficiaries for COVID vaccination have been administered so far. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late tonight.
The cumulative coverage of vaccine doses, segregated based on population priority groups, is as follows:
|
|
Cumulative Vaccine Dose Coverage
|
|
HCWs
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
10389630
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
9762114
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
1207924
|
|
FLWs
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
18388211
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
17014069
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
775858
|
|
Age Group 15-18 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
29694734
|
|
Age Group 18-44 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
519676693
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
360240706
|
|
Age Group 45-59 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
196788088
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
158460291
|
|
Over 60 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
122646794
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
99346669
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
635888
|
|
Cumulative 1st dose administered
|
|
897584150
|
|
Cumulative 2nd dose administered
|
|
644823849
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
2619670
|
|
Total
|
|
1545027669
Today’s achievement in the vaccination exercise, segregated by population priority groups, is as follows:
|
|
Date: 12th January, 2022 
|
|
HCWs
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
222
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
5270
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
281604
|
|
FLWs
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
302
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
11881
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
281679
|
|
Age Group 15-18 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
1353194
|
|
Age Group 18-44 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
1305277
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
2123803
|
|
Age Group 45-59 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
158014
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
588852
|
|
Over 60 years
|
|
1st Dose
|
|
91090
|
|
2nd Dose
|
|
319106
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
157391
|
|
Cumulative 1st dose administered
|
|
2908099
|
|
Cumulative 2nd dose administered
|
|
3048912
|
|
Precaution Dose
|
|
720674
|
|
Total
|
|
6677685
The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level.
Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation
Uma Bharti stresses the importance of ODF Sustainability at Swachhata Samaroh in Agra
Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Sushri Uma Bharti, today highlighted the importance of sustaining the open defecation free status achieved in over 5.5 lakh villages and 600 districts across rural India. She was addressing a Swachhata Samaroh in Agra of over 5000 key swachhata stakeholders like Gram Pradhans, Swachhagrahis, ASHA, AWWs, Swachhata Champions and others. The Samaroh was organised by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to the gathering, Sushri Uma Bharti congratulated the people of Uttar Pradesh for boosting rural sanitation coverage in the State from around 48% in 2017 to almost 100% at present in less than two years. She highlighted the crucial role played by Gram Panchayats for accelerating behaviour change for safe sanitation and making the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen  a community led movement and a true Jan Andolan.
She encouraged participants to also focus on ODF-plus activities like Solid and Liquid Waste Management  and generating wealth from waste.
The Minister administered a swachhata oath to the audience for discarding plastics/polythene use, taking up cleaning of river banks and waterbodies and adopting organic farming using cow-dung based manure and compost for encouraging ODF sustainability and environment conservation.
Prof. Ram Shanker Katheria, MP  and Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Caste thanked the Minister for her inspiring leadership in driving SBMG successfully to achieve an ODF India and encouraged participants to work for ODF sustainability.
Sushri Uma Bharati also felicitated 30 Swachhata Champions including Gram Pradhans and Swachhagrahis of Agra division for their outstanding work in making their GPs ODF and for their efforts in ODF sustainability. Mayor , Shri Navin Jain, MLA, Shri Jagan Prasad Garg, and JS , Shri Arun Baroka were among other dignitaries present at the event.
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Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
National Regulator approves “Conditional Market Authorization” of two COVID19 Vaccines- Covaxin and Covishield
Market Authorization conditional to submission of ongoing clinical trial data and safety data of the vaccine, at longer time intervals
All vaccinations to be recorded on CoWIN platform and AEFI, AESI to be strictly monitored
Approval reflects India’s proactive and agile COVID19 Management
The National Regulator, Drugs Controller General of India , has given nod to market authorization of two COVID19 vaccines, Covaxin and Covishield subject to certain conditions, here today. The Subject Expert Committee  of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization  had recommended for upgradation of status for the vaccines from restricted use in emergency situations to grant of new drug permission with conditions in the adult population on 19th January 2022.
The market authorization of two COVID19 vaccines, Covaxin and Covishield, in the country by DCGI is subject to the following conditions:
1. Firm shall submit data of overseas ongoing clinical trials of the product with due analysis on six monthly basis or as and when available, whichever is earlier.
2. The vaccine shall be supplied for programmatic setting and all vaccinations done within the country to be recorded on CoWIN platform and Adverse Event Following Immunization [AEFI], Adverse Event of Special Interest [AESI] shall continue to be monitored. The firm shall submit the safety data including AEFI and AESI with due analysis on six monthly basis or as and when available, whichever is earlier as per NDCT Rules, 2019.
The proactive and agile approach followed by Government of India has been a hallmark of its strategy of management of COVID19. The latest approval accorded by DCGI for conditional market authorization to two COVID19 vaccines in the country indicates the promptness and timeliness with which the public response strategy and decision making apparatus of the country has responded to the emerging needs during the pandemic.
It may be noted that of the global Stringent Regulatory Authorities, only the United States Food and Drug Administration  Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency  of the UK have granted “conditional market authorization” to Pfizer and AstraZeneca, respectively, for their COVID19 Vaccines.
“Conditional Market Authorization” is a new category of market authorization that has emerged during the current global pandemic of COVID19. The approval pathways through this route are fast-tracked with certain conditions to enhance the access to certain pharmaceuticals for meeting the emerging needs of drugs or vaccines.
India’s nation-wide COVID19 vaccination program was launched on 16th January, 2021. As of today, more than 160 crore doses have been administered. The Union Government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country. New categories of population have been added to the national COVID19 vaccination drive starting from 3rd January 2022.
Ministry of Finance
NEXT PHASE OF EASE OF LIVING TO BE LAUNCHED UNDER AMRIT KAAL : UNION BUDGET 2022-23
ISSUANCE OF E-PASSPORTS USING EMBEDDED CHIP AND FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY TO BE ROLLED OUT IN 2022-23
MODERNISATION OF BUILDING BYELAWS, TOWN PLANNING SCHEMES AND TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT TO PROMOTE BETTER URBAN PLANNING
PROPOSAL FOR DEVELOPING INDIA SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN THROUGH CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE
BATTERY SWAPPING POLICY AND INTER-OPERABILITY STANDARDS TO BE FORMULATED FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE ECOSYSTEM
“This Budget seeks to lay the foundation and give a blueprint to steer the economy over the Amrit Kaal of the next 25 years – from India at 75 to India at 100”. The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, laid this vision, while presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today. She made the announcement for the next launch of Ease of Living under Amrit Kaal.
The Union Minister explained that this new phase of Ease of living will be guided by an approach comprising of the following:
- Active involvement of the states,
- Digitisation of manual processes and interventions
- Integration of the central and state-level systems through IT bridges.
This will help in creating a single point access for all citizen-centric services and bring about standardization and removal of overlapping compliances.
Issuance of chip embedded e-Passports
The Finance Minister announced that the issuance of e-Passports using embedded chip and futuristic Technology will be rolled out in 2022-23. This will further enhance the convenience for citizens in their overseas travel.
Modernization of building byelaws and town/urban planning
Modernization of building byelaws, Town Planning Schemes , and Transit Oriented Development  have also been proposed by the Finance Minister to bring about reforms in Urban planning. This will facilitate reforms for the people to live and work closer to mass transit systems.
In this regard, the Union Minister also said that, “the Central Government’s financial support for mass transit projects and AMRUT scheme will be leveraged for formulation of action plans and their implementation for facilitating TOD and TPS by the states”.
Establishing Centres of Excellence in urban planning
For developing India specific knowledge in urban planning and design, and to deliver certified training in these areas, up to five existing academic institutions in different regions have been proposed to be designated as Centres of Excellence. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman also informed to the house that these centres will be provided endowment funds of Rs. 250 crore each.
Battery Swapping Policy
The Finance Minister, while highlighting the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up
charging stations at scale, announced the proposal of bringing out Battery Swapping Policy and
inter-operability standards. “The private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models for ‘Battery or Energy as a Service’ ”, the Minister noted.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
UPDATES ON COVID-19
Recovered Cases more than 4 lakh
Recovered cases exceed Active cases by close to 1.65 lakh
Collective and focused efforts for containment and management of COVID-19 by the Government of India along with the States/UTs have led to the number of recovered cases among COVID-19 patients rise to 4,09,082 as of today. During the last 24 hours, a total of 14,856 COVID-19 patients have been cured.
So far, there are 1,64,268 more recovered patients than COVID-19 active cases. This takes the national Recovery Rate amongst COVID-19 to 60.77%.
There are 2,44,814 active cases and all are under active medical supervision.
There are 21 State/UTs with a Recovery Rate of more than the National average. The list is as follows:
|
|
S. No.
|
|
State / UT
|
|
Recovery Rate
|
|
1
|
|
Chandigarh
|
|
85.9%
|
|
2
|
|
Ladakh
|
|
82.2%
|
|
3
|
|
Uttarakhand
|
|
80.9%
|
|
4
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
|
80.6%
|
|
5
|
|
Rajasthan
|
|
80.1%
|
|
6
|
|
Mizoram
|
|
79.3%
|
|
7
|
|
Tripura
|
|
77.7%
|
|
8
|
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
|
76.9%
|
|
9
|
|
Jharkhand
|
|
74.3%
|
|
10
|
|
Bihar
|
|
74.2%
|
|
11
|
|
Haryana
|
|
74.1%
|
|
12
|
|
Gujarat
|
|
71.9%
|
|
13
|
|
Punjab
|
|
70.5%
|
|
14
|
|
Delhi
|
|
70.2%
|
|
15
|
|
Meghalaya
|
|
69.4%
|
|
16
|
|
Odisha
|
|
69.0%
|
|
17
|
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
|
68.4%
|
|
18
|
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
|
67.3%
|
|
19
|
|
West Bengal
|
|
66.7%
|
|
20
|
|
Assam
|
|
62.4%
|
|
21
|
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
|
62.4%
The testing lab network in the country continues to expand. With 786 labs in the government sector and 314 private labs, so there are as many as 1100 labs in the country. These include:
• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 591 
• TrueNat based testing labs: 417 
• CBNAAT based testing labs: 92 
Focussed “Test, Trace, Treat” strategy coupled with various measures recently taken to remove hurdles for COVID-19 testing, there has been a steady rise in the samples tested every day; during the last 24 hours 2,48,934 samples have been tested. The cumulative number of samples tested, as on date, is 97,89,066.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued ‘A Guidance Document for General Medical and Specialised Mental Health Care Settings’. This is available at:
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/MentalHealthIssuesCOVID19NIMHANS.pdf
For all authentic & updated information on COVID-19 related technical issues, guidelines & advisories please regularly visit: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/ and @MoHFW_INDIA.
Technical queries related to COVID-19 may be sent to technicalquery.covid19[at]gov[dot]in and other queries on ncov2019[at]gov[dot]in and @CovidIndiaSeva .
In case of any queries on COVID-19, please call at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare helpline no.: +91-11-23978046 or 1075 . List of helpline numbers of States/UTs on COVID-19 is also available at https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/coronvavirushelplinenumber.pdf .